Caleb Gorton – East Timor's first president Xanana Gusmao has labelled Australia's maritime border dispute with Timor-Leste as "immoral" and claims it breaks international law.

Speaking at a public lecture at Curtin University in Perth, Mr Gusmao slammed the maritime treaty between the two countries.

Australia and East Timor have overlapping border claims in the Timor Sea, which includes an oil and gas field. Under the 2007 treaty, East Timor receives 90 per cent of oil revenue from the area and Australia receives 10 per cent.

"Our strong relationship is being overshadowed by one issue; Timor-Leste's right to our maritime borders," Mr Gusmao said. Mr Gusmao said Australia maintained it was a generous deal but the oil should belong to Timor-Leste.

"Australia knows its position is not consistent with international law," he said. "We say to the Australian government, 'it is time to right the wrong'."

There is currently no official maritime border between the countries, Mr Gusmao said. "Australia refuses to talk to Timor-Leste about the remaining 1.8 per cent of its maritime boundary in the Timor Sea," he said. "Australia remains a wall of silence."

East Timor Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araujo wrote to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in February to urge Australia to open talks about the dispute. More than 10,000 people protested outside the Australian embassy in Dili in March.

East Timor launched action to create a permanent sea border under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on April 11. The claim will be decided by an independent panel of experts.

"Establishing permanent maritime boundaries is a matter of national priority for Timor-Leste, as the final step in realising our sovereignty as an independent state," Mr Araujo said in a statement earlier this month.

"Australia is obliged to negotiate permanent maritime boundaries with Timor-Leste but it has refused to do so, despite all our invitations. This has left us with only one option."

East Timor was occupied by Indonesian forces from 1975 until it declared independence in 1999. Violence broke out after the declaration and Australian-led UN forces entered East Timor in late 1999.

The original Timor Sea Treaty, signed in 2002, allowed Australia and East Timor to share resources in the Timor Sea. That treaty was signed on the day the country became independent of United Nations rule.

Mr Gusmao said the 2002 boundaries were made when East Timor was at its weakest. "Australia took advantage of our vulnerability," he said.

Mr Gusmao was a key figure in the independence movement and was the leader of the Armed Forces for the National Liberation of East Timor in the 1980s. He was later imprisoned by Indonesian forces from 1993 to 1999.

Mr Gusmao said Australia should not tell countries in the South China Sea to respect maritime borders while ignoring its own responsibilities in the Timor Sea. "We have faith in the Australian people in their commitment to fairness and justice," he said.

Source: https://inkwirenews.com.au/2016/04/27/east-timors-first-president-slams-australia-over-oil-field/

Timor-Leste tests the waters of UN law in maritime dispute with Australia

Channel News Asia - April 24, 2016

Samantha Yap, Singapore – Timor-Leste is taking Australia to the United Nations (UN) to settle a long-running maritime border dispute by using a legal mechanism that has not been invoked before.

Amid the tension of other ongoing maritime disputes in the region, particularly over the South China Sea, Timor-Leste's Foreign Minister Hernani Coelho told Channel News Asia that this test of international maritime law would set an interesting precedent.

"It will be a very good example for all of us and I think for the world as whole because it will be interesting to see how we are going to implement a theory that was envisioned back in 1982," said Mr Coelho, who was on a visit to Singapore.

Timor-Leste in early April launched a compulsory conciliation process under the 1982 UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Its aim is to get Australia to the negotiating table in order to conclude an agreement on permanent maritime boundaries.

The conciliation procedure can be used where one party in the dispute has withdrawn from UNCLOS' compulsory dispute settlement procedures – as Australia did in 2002, two months before Timor-Leste's independence.

Australia has refused to accept that a binding settlement on sea boundaries should be decided by international tribunal.

Implications for small states

But under the conciliation alternative, a commission will hear the parties' arguments and both would then be obliged to negotiate in good faith on the basis of its report – which, while not binding, carries political pressure, say analysts.

The case between Timor-Leste and Australia may have broader implications for regional security concerns over maritime disputes, namely, the escalating tensions in the South China Sea.

International law is also being tested by China and the Philippines in an ongoing arbitration case under UNCLOS concerning China's nine-dash line claim over the South China Sea.

Mr Coelho called an international mechanism like UNCLOS "a very important instrument" for small states. "But it is also very important to provide a strong foundation for the role a big state should play," he added.

"You have 193 countries with everybody acting in their own way, it will be very complicated for us to work together."

What the dispute is about

More than a decade after gaining independence in 2002, establishing permanent sea boundaries is a matter of sovereignty and economics for Timor-Leste.

The young state has long argued that without a permanent border drawn up along the "median line" between Australia, it is missing out on billions of dollars in revenue from oil and gas.

According to Mr Coelho, who is a member of Timor-Leste's Council for the Final Delimitation of Maritime Boundaries, 75 per cent of Timor-Leste's state budget revenue comes from the oil and gas fields in the Timor Sea.

Timor-Leste believes it is entitled to a wider maritime area than what has been agreed upon with Australia in several treaties.

In 2002, the two countries signed the Timor Sea Treaty which provides for the sharing of proceeds in the Joint Petroleum Development Area.

In 2006, Australia and Timor-Leste signed a Certain Maritime Arrangement of the Timor Sea treaty for the equal distribution of proceeds of petroleum obtained in the Greater Sunrise oil and gas fields. The deposits in this now-disputed area are reportedly worth at least US$40 billion.

The Australian government has expressed its disappointment with Timor-Leste's recent initiation of the compulsory conciliation process, saying this contravenes their prior agreement to "not pursue proceedings relating to maritime boundaries".

However, Mr Coelho's view is that the treaties were "about an arrangement for resource-sharing without prejudice to negotiations to actually define the maritime boundary".

In a statement last week also, Timor-Leste's Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araujo said Australia was "obliged" under international law to negotiate permanent sea boundaries but had refused to do so.

But the Australian government said it "stands by the existing treaties which are fair and consistent with International law".

"These treaties have benefitted both our countries and enabled Timor-Leste to accumulate a Petroleum Fund worth more than US$16 billion," said a spokesperson for the Australian government.

While Mr Coelho acknowledges that the outcome of the UNCLOS conciliation process is not binding, he sees merit in having a third-party opinion that will offer Timor-Leste options on what steps to take next.

"At least this will provide us with internationally accepted principles towards which some new progress would be made," he said.

As for its other big neighbour, Timor-Leste has bilaterally finalised 98 per cent of its maritime borders with Indonesia under UNCLOS, with the remaining 2 per cent to be concluded within the next year or two. – CNA/yv

Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/timor-leste-tests-the/2722614.html

Timor-Leste brings maritime dispute with Australia to United Nations

Inter Press Service - April 14, 2016

Lyndal Rowlands, United Nations – Timor-Leste which won independence from Indonesia in 1999 is now engaged in a new struggle with Australia over rights to oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

Former Timorese Prime Minister and independence leader "Kay Rala" Xanana Gusmao met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon here Wednesday to discuss his country's plans to use the compulsory conciliation provisions under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to settle Timor-Leste's maritime boundary dispute with Australia.

"We fought a long struggle for 24 years for our independence and for sovereignty over our land, now we are in a new struggle to secure sovereign rights over our seas," Gusmao told journalists after his meeting with Ban.

Gusmao said that Timor-Leste could not take Australia to the international courts because two-months before Timor-Leste gained independence Australia withdrew from the relevant binding jurisdiction. "They did this because they knew they were wrong," he said.

Gusmao said that Australia took advantage of Timor-Leste's vulnerability as a young and inexperienced nation to enter into an unfair agreement over the maritime boundaries between the two countries.

The boundaries have a significant impact on the half-island nation's economy due to revenues from oil and gas reserves in the disputed area.

The Timorese government uses the money raised from oil and gas revenues to provide essential services to its young population. Sixty percent of Timor-Leste's 1.2 million people are aged under 25 years of age and the country continues to struggle on key development indicators, including hunger. According to the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, malnutrition is major concern for Timor-Leste with 44.7 percent of children under five years old underweight.

Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/2016/04/timor-leste-brings-maritime-dispute-with-australia-to-united-nations/

East Timor fights for fair share of Timor Sea rights from Australia

World Policy Review - April 14, 2016

On Monday, East Timor asked the United Nations to begin the process of establishing a permanent maritime boundary with Australia in the Timor Sea. In an email interview, Clinton Fernandes, a professor at the University of New South Wales Canberra, discussed Australia's ties with East Timor and the border dispute.

WPR: What is the background to the current agreement on maritime boundaries between Australia and East Timor, and what changes is East Timor seeking to make to the agreement?

Clinton Fernandes: In 1972, Australia negotiated a maritime boundary with Indonesia that granted it the lion's share of oil and gas resources in the seabed, but which did not determine the boundary with East Timor, at the time a Portuguese colony. Indonesia subsequently invaded and annexed East Timor in 1975, and in 1989 signed a provisional regime with Australia to explore and exploit petroleum resources in the Timor Sea. Revenues were shared equally within a "zone of cooperation."

In 1999, Indonesian forces withdrew from East Timor under overwhelming international pressure after East Timor voted in favor of independence in a referendum. The new Democratic Republic of East Timor sought a maritime border halfway between the Australian and East Timorese coasts, as it was entitled to do under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The Australian foreign minister, well aware that his country's legal position was weak, announced just before East Timor's formal independence in 2002 that Australia would withdraw from the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which governs disputes under UNCLOS. This meant that East Timor had the law on its side but could derive no benefit from it.

Australia then strong-armed the impoverished, newly independent state into signing a series of temporary resource-sharing arrangements, one of which was the Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS) Treaty in 2006. CMATS prevents discussion of maritime boundaries until 2056. The government of East Timor insists on establishing the maritime border halfway between the Australian and East Timorese coasts, known as the median line.

WPR: What are the economic implications of the maritime boundary for both countries, but especially with regard to East Timor's economic development?

Fernandes: There are no borders in the Timor Sea because Australia has never agreed to define a maritime boundary. The only arrangements are those concerning revenues from the petroleum deposits. They include the Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA), an area of the Timor Sea that contains the Bayu-Undan and Elang-Kakatua oil and gas fields, and about 20 percent of the Greater Sunrise field. Australia and East Timor each receive half the upstream revenues of the Greater Sunrise field, although that field is twice as close to East Timor as it is to Australia. East Timor receives 90 percent of the upstream, or extraction, revenue from Bayu-Undan and Elang-Kakatua, and Australia gets 100 percent of the downstream revenue, which includes refining and liquefaction.

The late human rights activist Andrew McNaughtan argued that East Timor should enjoy much greater entitlements than those defined by the JPDA, whose lateral boundaries were "indefensible in modern international law." Vaughan Lowe and Christopher Carleton have shown that most, and probably all, of Greater Sunrise field would fall within East Timor's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) under UNCLOS.

Determining who should get what without a maritime boundary is like playing tennis without a net – there is no way to tell what counts as fair. There was about $16 billion in East Timor's Petroleum Fund at the start of 2016. In the past 15 years, the Australian government has received about $5 billion that should have gone to East Timor if the boundary were drawn according to UNCLOS.

WPR: Where does the border issue fit into the context of broader ties between Australia and East Timor, and how has it affected them?

Fernandes: Australia's use of its overseas spy agency against the East Timorese government during treaty negotiations poisoned the bilateral relationship. It has also exposed a contradiction between Australia's defense and foreign policies. Australia's defense policymakers prefer to see a stable East Timor that is pro-Australian and not subject to third-party influence. They would also probably want East Timor to host an Australian submarine base on the south coast. However, Australian foreign policymakers have treated East Timor with cavalier disregard, and the implications of this treatment are being felt. In recent years, China has built East Timor's presidential palace, its Foreign Ministry buildings and its army barracks. East Timor now regards China as a reliable friend, and seeks even closer ties to it.

Source: http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/trend-lines/18491/east-timor-fights-for-fair-share-of-timor-sea-rights-from-australia

Contrasting party policies emerge over maritime boundary with East Timor

SBS News - April 14, 2016

Hannah Sinclair – East Timor has filed a request with the United Nations to resolve a dispute over its maritime border with Australia. It's a move that has evoked quite different policy reactions.

As part of a long-running dispute, East Timor argues it is severely disadvantaged by the lack of a permanent maritime boundary between Australia and the small island nation. It says the current resource-sharing arrangements in the Timor Sea mean it's missing out on billions of dollars in revenue from offshore oil and gas fields.

The Australian federal government says the existing treaties, negotiated with the newly-independent East Timor in 2006, are fair and consistent with international law. East Timor has now filed a request with the United Nations to help solve the dispute.

But Australia has withdrawn from the maritime boundary jurisdiction of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, meaning Australia's government doesn't have to abide by any decision made by the UN on the matter.

Agio Pereira is the Minister of State and East Timor's second most important Cabinet position after the Prime Minister. Mr Pereira says they are pursuing the UN path because it can still provide high-profile and powerful recommendations.

"The recommendations will be a guide for both countries, Australia and Timor Leste, to understand under International Law, or even from a political perspective, economic perspective, the sovereignty over the Timor Sea that Timor Leste also originally has and wants the limitation and maritime boundaries to consolidate this sovereignty."

Source: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/04/14/contrasting-party-policies-emerge-over-maritime-boundary-east-timor

Labor will give Timor a new deal on oil if it wins election

ABC News - April 12, 2016

Mark Colvin: Labor's shadow foreign Minister says if the United Nations rules in favour of East Timor in a border dispute and her party wins government, it'll negotiate a new and fair maritime boundary with the tiny state to our north.

Tanya Plibersek's promise would mean East Timor gaining, and Australia losing, billions in royalties from the disputed oil and gas resources under the seas between. It would also mean a historic diplomatic climb-down from the original deal struck when the fledging nation was emerging from Indonesian rule.

The Government has attacked Timor's decision, reported on this program last night, to wind up years of fruitless talk and call in the UN.

Peter Lloyd.

Peter Lloyd: It was just before midday yesterday when Timor pulled the pin on talks with Australia over the ownership of vast oil and gas fields that lie deep under the balmy waters that lie between us.

First response from the Turnbull Government was a few lines that directly challenged Timor's claim that the deal is unjust, Australia is greedy and doing it all can not to draw a line on the map that properly separates two sovereign states.

The deal was negotiated by foreign minister Alexander Downer years ago. He still stands by it and so does his one-time adviser on the matter. That man is now Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg. He spoke on Radio National breakfast.

Josh Frydenberg: But certainly East Timor are the ones who are getting the greatest benefit.

Peter Lloyd: It was back in February when Labor unveiled its new approach to the nagging treaty dispute. It was the start of the daylight now growing between Labor and the Coalition on this issue and that was before Timor threw in the bombshell.

Australia now faces the prospect that the world body will now agree with the Timorese. It's now clear how Labor in power would respond. Tanya Plibersek.

Tanya Plibersek: Look I think it's definitely the right thing to do in a moral sense.

The people of East Timor were very happy that Australia played an important role in helping the people of East Timor secure their independence from Indonesia, but since then the relationship has come under a great deal of strain, because these people from one of the poorest nations in our region, a tiny country compared with Australia, feel that Australia has deliberately delayed the finalisation of this seabed boundary issue.

So it has certainly, as well as being a moral good as you say, I think would certainly contribute to restoring the bilateral relationship to the close one that it should be.

Peter Lloyd: What have the Timorese asked you to do?

Tanya Plibersek: Well this actually, I mean at different times we've had different discussions with members of the East Timorese government and they've not asked for charity, they've asked for justice in their words.

Peter Lloyd: It's a good slogan, but does it mean, what are they asking for?

Tanya Plibersek: It means submit to international arbitration if we can't resolve it bilaterally. And at the same time as we're saying that China and other nations that have claims in the South China Sea should submit themselves to arbitration and should abide by the outcome of that arbitration, particularly under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, it's a bit rich if we're not prepared to do it ourselves.

I think the Coalition's position is that we can continue to string this out for as long as we like because we're a big nation faced with a request from a smaller nation, and I think if we revert to a position where might is right and we ignore conventions like the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, then we're not an infinitely strong position ourselves.

The best case, the best environment for Australia, is a world where all countries abide by the law, the international law, and if we are not prepared to do it ourselves, we can't expect that other countries will do it.

We've seen just recently, for example the Japanese Government have taken steps to withdraw from part of the jurisdiction on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea so they continue to hunt whales.

Well of course Australia says that's wrong. We've had a judgement in the international fora that says it is wrong for the Japanese Government to allow this whale slaughter. We say they should abide by international law. We can't then exempt ourselves from the same convention when it comes to the seabed boundary dispute.

Peter Lloyd: So it follows that if the UN arbitration process ends with Australia being told you have to right this wrong, you do it.

Tanya Plibersek: Of course. At the end of the day, you don't do that unless you're prepared to accept the results of that adjudication.

Peter Lloyd: You could lose a lot of money from donors like Woodside and other extractive industries by doing that. Have you told them what you're going to do and have they accepted it?

Tanya Plibersek: Yes, we have, yes we have.

Peter Lloyd: Have they accepted it?

Tanya Plibersek: Well they accept that they this is an unresolved issue that contributes to a great deal of uncertainty and I think, I mean as you know, international commodity prices are under a lot of stress at the moment so there's a debate whether any of these resources are economical any time soon.

But from the point of view of a company, what they need is some certainty for development to occur and I think from their perspective that certainty would be welcomed.

Peter Lloyd: In Dili, dilapidation is making way of development. The people Indonesia wanted dead or jailed or supplicants now largely run the country. A profound sense of injustice about Australia and big oil and their power play over the county's prized natural asset is marrow in the national story.

For eight years, Steve Bracks was the premier of Victoria, and for the last seven, he's been advising Timor and making a government from scratch.

Steve Bracks: This is a profound issue in Timor-Leste. Publicly, no matter where you go around the country, people are aware that what they need to be sovereign nation is to have control over their territorial waters.

I mean for example this joint development area in the Timor Sea, the Sunrise development, is 150 kilometres from Timor and 400 kilometres from Australia's shore. It's hard for people to understand how Australia should therefore have 50 per cent of the development of that resource.

Clearly if there's a proper international boundary on the median line, it would be totally Timor's resource. This is billions of dollars in a sovereign wealth fund which would go to building infrastructure as a country. And you know, that's exactly what Timor needs and it's very well understood in the country.

Peter Lloyd: The oil and gas deals in place with Indonesia before independence carried the support of Australia, so if I asked Steve Bracks if commercial interests were mixed with the national interest when John Howard sent in the troops to keep the peace.

A treaty that was never that fair on Timor from Timor's point of view was protected by John Howard and others at the time of the intervention. How much was that a reason for Australia getting involved in the first place?

Steve Bracks: Well we'll never know how much of a reason that was. Clearly that was in the background, that the pre-arrangements with Indonesia then carried forward to the newly independent country of Timor-Leste, was favourable to Australia in the 50-50 split that was forged on a no prejudice basis.

Nevertheless I think there was goodwill in making sure that Australia stood up for the independent rights of people in Timor-Leste and that was welcomed.

Peter Lloyd: A year from now, when the UN rules, the way forward might be clear.

Mark Colvin: Peter Lloyd reporting.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2016/s4441778.htm

East Timor takes Australia to UN over sea border

Sydney Morning Herald - April 11, 2016

Tom Allard – East Timor has called in the United Nations to help resolve its bitter dispute with Australia over a permanent sea border in the oil-rich Timor Sea.

The tiny nation on Monday informed Australia that it would trigger conciliation proceedings under the UN's Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) where the merits of a new boundary and where it should lie will be considered by a panel of five experts.

The move was sharply criticised by the Australian government, with a spokesperson for foreign minister Julie Bishop saying it contravened previous agreements between the two nations.

Last month, there were mass protests in Dili over the unresolved maritime border, with more than 10,000 people rallying outside the Australian embassy in the Timorese capital.

East Timor believes that a permanent boundary determined under international law would see the vast bulk of an estimated $US40 billion ($53 billion) in oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea fall within its territory.

It also believes it has lost about $US5 billion ($6.6 billion) in revenue due to the current temporary arrangements, enough to fund the entire East Timor government budget for about three years.

Australia disputes the contention, arguing a boundary set under UNCLOS principles would likely see most of the massive Greater Sunrise oil and gas deposit lie in Indonesian territory.

Either way, Australia's ongoing refusal to negotiate a permanent boundary has infuriated East Timor (also known as Timor Leste). It believes Australia exploited its vulnerability as an economically weak nation state recovering from mass violence in the wake of Indonesia's occupation.

"Establishing permanent boundaries is a matter of national priority for Timor Leste as the final step in realising our sovereignty as an independent state," said Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araujo.

While temporary revenue sharing agreements between the two countries were forged in 2002 and 2006, East TImor views them as unfair, not least because Australia spied on East Timor's negotiators in 2004.

Under the latter treaty, known as the Treaty of Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS), East Timor received 90 per cent of revenue from a "Joint Petroleum Development Area" and a half share of Greater Sunrise, most of which lies outside the JPDA.

The treaty also included a clause stipulating a 50-year freeze on negotiating a permanent maritime boundary. "We stand by the existing treaties, which are fair and consistent with international law," the spokesperson for Ms Bishop said in a statement.

"These treaties have benefited both our countries and enabled Timor Leste to accumulate a Petroleum Fund worth more than $16 billion. Timor Leste's decision to initiate compulsory conciliation contravenes prior agreements between our countries not to pursue proceedings relating to maritime boundaries."

In the espionage operation, Australian Secret Intelligence Service agents pretended to be aid workers repairing East Timor's government offices. The spies inserted listening devices into the wall cavity of East Timor's cabinet office where its CMATS negotiating team met.

Australia's conduct earned it a rare and remarkable rebuke from the International Court of Justice, which ordered Australia cease spying on East Timor.

The outcome of the UN conciliation process is non-binding because Australia controversially exited the jurisdiction of UNCLOS two months before East Timor became a nation state in 2002.

However, East Timor's Minister of State Agio Pereira said the process was worthwhile. "It's fair. It's neutral. It allows both parties to have a deeper understanding of the merits of the arguments under international law, under politics... and the impact of the treaties as well," he told Fairfax Media.

The conciliation will lead to a report after 12 months. Both sides can appoint two members of the panel. The chair of the conciliation has to be agreed by both sides. If Australia declines to participate, the UN will intervene to appoint experts.

While Australia refuses to negotiate a new sea border, East Timor and Indonesia have committed to formal talks on the boundary.

Mr Pereira said East Timor would continue to pursue a separate, binding arbitration underway in the Hague to have CMATS annulled because it was negotiated in "bad faith" due to the spying in 2004.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/east-timor-takes-australia-to-un-over-sea-border-20160411-go39tl.html

East Timor-Australia maritime border to be negotiated before United Nations after

ABC Radio Australia - April 11, 2016

Matthew Doran and Peter Lloyd – East Timor is taking Australia to the United Nations to solve the dispute over its maritime border under international maritime law.

The island nation has long argued current arrangements mean it is missing out on billions of dollars in revenue from offshore oil and gas fields. Last month, thousands of protesters gathered outside the Australian embassy in Dili calling for Australia to negotiate.

In a statement, the East Timorese Government said while there were temporary resource-sharing arrangements in the Timor Sea, there was no permanent maritime boundary between Australia and the small island nation.

It has now approached the UN to begin a formal conciliation process conducted by an independent panel of experts. Australia has withdrawn from the maritime boundary jurisdiction of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Australia was disappointed East Timor had decided to take the matter to the UN. "We stand by the existing treaties, which are fair and consistent with international law," the spokeswoman said.

"These treaties have benefited both our countries and enabled Timor-Leste to accumulate a Petroleum Fund worth more than $16 billion. Timor-Leste's decision to initiate compulsory conciliation contravenes prior agreements between our countries not to pursue proceedings relating to maritime boundaries."

East Timor believed if the maritime boundary was decided under UNCLOS, most of the oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea would lie within their territory.

The location of the maritime border in relation to a multi-billion-dollar oil and gas field in the Timor Sea is central to a spying scandal that has rocked relations between East Timor and Australia.

Australia has been accused of bugging East Timor's cabinet office during negotiations for a treaty that would divide the revenues from the $40 billion Greater Sunrise oil and gas field. That treaty ruled revenue from the Greater Sunrise field would be split evenly between the two countries.

"Establishing permanent maritime boundaries is a matter of national priority for Timor-Leste, as the final step in realising our sovereignty as an independent state," Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araujo said.

"Under international law, Australia is obliged to negotiate permanent maritime boundaries with Timor-Leste but it has refused to do so, despite all our invitations.

"This has left us with only one option. This process allows for a commission to assist our two countries to reach an amicable solution on permanent maritime boundaries."

Dr Araujo said his country is seeking a fair and equitable solution to what it argues it is entitled to under international law.

'It's really time to draw the line': Senior East Timor minister

Agio Pereira is the Minister of State, Timor Leste's second most important Cabinet position after the Prime Minister. "It's really time to draw the line to give more certainty for East Timor and to consolidate more or less the sovereignty," he told the ABC's PM program.

Mr Pereira argues that East Timor will be a safer, more secure country if the boundaries change. "The sovereign access to natural resources is a very sacrosanct principle of UN member states," he said.

"(A) sovereign nation state, without that, does have a lot of constraints in terms of full development of its own capacity, and that definitely will give Timor much higher certainty and better understanding of its potential."

This is the first time in the UN's history that the world body is being asked to step in. Mr Pereira said Australia must abide by the UN's findings.

"Australia has been trying hard in the last few years to be as best of a citizen in international community as possible. I think Australia cannot go on lecturing other countries about respecting international law in the limitation of maritime boundaries, and yet look the other way in its closest neighbour, Timor Leste."

Mr Pereira made the case that Australia was behaving like China in its approach to the domination of the South China Sea. But he chose his words very carefully in pushing that line. "It's in various fronts. I think Australia also played a very important role in other international issues, and that's very important. But you must lead by example."

But he said he was "not necessarily" comparing Canberra with Beijing. "We see the foreign policy of Australia as a complex one in geopolitical sense, in its regional security sense, in economic sense. We respect that."

Source: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2016-04-11/east-timoraustralia-maritime-border-to-be-negotiated-before-united-nations-after-protests/1568096

Trying to squeeze money from the last drop of oil

The Economist - April 9, 2016

Dili and Sydney – Thousands of people recently rallied in front of the Australian embassy in Dili, the seaside capital of Timor-Leste, in probably the biggest demonstration since the tiny country's birth 14 years ago. The protesters were angry at Australia's refusal to negotiate a permanent boundary in the Timor Sea, beneath which lie untold quantities of oil and gas. Timor-Leste claims that the refusal is costing it billions of dollars and is a slight to its sovereignty.

Australia maintains that revenue-sharing agreements the two countries signed years ago remain in force. One of them postpones discussion of permanent maritime boundaries until 2057, though recent statements by Australia's opposition Labor Party in favour of negotiations have given Timorese hope. Yet a successful resolution to this dispute will merely postpone the most critical question facing Timor-Leste: what to do when the oil runs out. Nine-tenths of state revenues come from oil and gas. Only a handful of fragile states, among them South Sudan and Libya, depend more on hydrocarbons.

Timorese long saw Australia as their friend. It won goodwill when it led an international force into East Timor (as Timor-Leste was more often known) in 1999 to protect its people from Indonesia, from which Timorese voters had just voted for independence. (Indonesia had invaded and annexed the former Portuguese colony in 1975.) The goodwill dissipated over three treaties Australia then struck with Timor-Leste. On the face of it they look generous. The Timor Sea treaty of 2002 established a "joint petroleum development area", giving 90% of the area's oil revenues to Timor-Leste and the rest to Australia. A second treaty covered Greater Sunrise, a lucrative gasfield, most of which lies outside the area, beneath waters Australia still claims as its "exclusive seabed jurisdiction". A third treaty in 2006 agreed to split the Greater Sunrise revenue evenly between Timor-Leste and Australia.

Yet many in Timor-Leste say that without an agreement over the two countries' maritime boundary, the treaties are unfair. Although Australia agreed a seabed boundary with Indonesia in 1972, it has never negotiated one with Timor-Leste. Under international law, Timorese argue, such a boundary should run halfway between the two countries. That would leave the Greater Sunrise field completely inside Timor-Leste's 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.

Australia's behaviour has been high-handed at times. In 2002 it withdrew from the mechanism for adjudicating maritime boundary disputes under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). During talks on the third treaty, Australia is alleged to have bugged government offices in Dili. This has left Timor-Leste feeling bullied into accepting an unfair deal. It is, says Tomas Freitas of MKOTT, an activist group, why so many demonstrators went to the Australian embassy on March 23rd.

But it may also have been a sense that Australia is now more susceptible to pressure. Woodside Petroleum, the Australian firm which heads the Greater Sunrise development consortium, says that future investment depends on "government alignment" between the two countries. The implication is that the dispute must be settled before it will spend big money on exploration. A recent Australian defence white paper cites a strong, secure Timor-Leste as one of the country's top strategic interests – and a boundary agreement would undoubtedly make it more secure. The foreign-affairs spokesman for Australia's Labor party, Tanya Plibersek, promises to start "good-faith" negotiations over the maritime boundary if her party wins a general election expected in July. She also says Australia should accept international adjudication under UNCLOS, if ever such negotiations failed.

Yet even the most favourable outcome would be less than Timor-Leste hopes for. For instance, the government wants a pipeline from the Greater Sunrise field to run ashore at Tasi Mane, a planned refinery project on the south coast. But that would mean laying it across the Timor trough, which is 3.3 kilometres (2 miles) deep. Woodside and its partners prefer floating terminals nearer the field, which would be more profitable for Timor-Leste.

With Greater Sunrise, Timor-Leste can keep pumping oil and gas until around 2031, though other fields will be exhausted in four years or so. The question looms: what happens after the oil money runs out? Timor-Leste was careful during the boom years earlier this century to put lots of petrodollars into a sovereign-wealth fund. But the fund is dwindling and may be gone entirely by 2025, claims a local NGO, Lao Hamutuk. More than half of Timor-Leste's population of 1.2m is under 17; all will one day need jobs. Yet in a dirt-poor country that relies too much on subsistence farming, too little is being done to plan for a post-oil economy.

Source: http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21696544-trying-squeeze-money-last-drop-oil-line-sand

China is watching as Dili rallies against Australia

Herald Sun - April 7, 2016

It was a colourful, peaceful protest. But it was the biggest rally since the days of the bloody independence referendum in 1999 – and it was directed at the Australian embassy.

The march, and others around Australia, including in Melbourne, and in Indonesia were aimed at trying to force Australia back to the negotiating table to settle a 40-year dispute over who owns what share of the lucrative oil and gas resources in the sea between Australia and East Timor.

The dispute is causing tensions between the two countries and it is becoming increasingly difficult for Australia to maintain its current position – not for legal reasons, but for moral ones.

In a nutshell, Australia is so far sticking to various treaties signed with East Timor over the past 20-odd years that divvy up the oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

East Timor, the world's second-youngest nation and one of its poorest, argues that the deals were signed when it was ill-equipped to negotiate because it had only just attained independence from Indonesia and, besides, Australia used espionage as part of its negotiating tactics.

(A former ASIS spy turned whistleblower has detailed how Australia installed listening devices in the East Timorese Cabinet room after offering to rebuild the government offices in Dili during some of the negotiations. When East Timor's lawyer, Bernard Collaery, raised this to argue the maritime boundary negotiations were not in good faith, ASIO raided him and the whistleblower and seized their documents.)

Australia argues that it was very generous to East Timor and that the treaties also provided stability, which allowed the developers to get in and start extracting the resources and paying royalties – $US16 billion for East Timor and $US1 billion for Australia, from the joint petroleum areas.

But East Timor wants a permanent deal and the ongoing dispute has spooked the preferred developer, Woodside, which is reluctant to make major capital investment when it doesn't know which government to negotiate with. Australia already has settled 98 per cent of its maritime borders – the only 2 per cent unresolved is that off the northwest corner of Australia and East Timor.

Australia says it is still prepared to negotiate a bilateral agreement, but is unclear what East Timor actually wants. Negotiators believe the real issue is East Timor's desire to show independence from Australia and a determination by former prime minister and president Xanana Gusmao to have natural gas processed in East Timor, whereas the developers would prefer a platform at sea.

Shadow foreign affairs minister Tanya Plibersek has committed Labor to enter negotiations with East Timor to agree to permanent boundaries and to submit us to international arbitration if a deal can't be reached.

Sure, East Timor is a developing nation and its budgeting is not perfect. But it is progressing and now has electricity across most of the country, an improving road network, better schooling, health, sanitation, a fledging taxation system, democratic elections – and its people live mainly in peace.

And because it took the advice of the UN and others, it has invested what oil and gas royalties it has received into a Sovereign Wealth Fund, which currently sits at about $20 billion. The annual interest it produces funds 90 per cent of East Timor's tiny budget.

We have a shared history with East Timor, going back to World War II. Under Gough Whitlam we looked the other way when Indonesia invaded the then Portuguese colony in 1975 in a conflict that claimed thousands of lives, including five Australian journalists at Balibo.

But to our credit under John Howard, we stared down Indonesia and backed the independence referendum. When pro-Indonesian militia went on a murderous rampage across the country, we were the major contributors to the peacekeeping and development forces that went in to clean up the mess. We are still East Timor's biggest foreign aid donor (almost $100 million a year) and its major military and law enforcement partner.

Yet not one minister has been to East Timor since the Coalition was elected in September 2013. The previous Labor government's international development minister, Melissa Parke, seems to have been the last ministerial visitor in August 2013.

The last Australian PM to visit was Kevin Rudd in 2008. Foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop went there in opposition in 2013. While she hasn't visited in government, she has met East Timor ministers 14 times and met their PM twice – and obviously knows Gusmao well, as the pair shared a warm hug when they met in the Australian parliament last year.

The other complicating factor is China, which sold two patrol boats to East Timor and won the contracts to develop its electricity supplies. China also built East Timor's department of foreign affairs, the Government Palace, which houses the executive arm of government and the defence barracks. (Some would suggest Australian listening devices are the least of their worries under those circumstances).

In January, the Chinese navy visited for five days and East Timor literally rolled out the red carpet on the docks; and Chinese sailors and Communist Party officials joined locals for song, dance and sporting matches, as Beijing continues to develop footholds across the Pacific.

Australia has been a benevolent and good neighbour to East Timor for many years. That must continue as East Timor continues on the path to becoming self-sustaining.

The time has come for Australia to continue its moral obligations to our tiny neighbour and negotiate a permanent maritime boundary that allows the bountiful natural resources to be developed in a way that benefits both countries..

[Ellen Whinnett is National Politics Editor.]

Source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/china-is-watching-as-dili-rallies-against-australia/news-story/b1ee8775927375bdcd11eaef32f41607?nk=491dbe9ed25dc1e140897cc520c29443-1460174687#load-story-comments

MPs urge for the permanent maritime boundary between Timor-Leste and Australia

Dili Weekly - April 5, 2016

Paulina Quintso – Member of the Timorese Parliament MPs have urged the Australian government to resolve a dispute between the two countries over maritime boundaries in the Timor Sea according to international law during the Governor-General of Australia Sir Peter Cosgrove's recent visit. Mps said they wanted a solution that was fair and just for Timorese people.

The calls came at a special plenary session at the National Parliament, Dili, on 3 March 2016 attended by Cosgrove and wife Lady Lynne Cosgrove, with representatives of FRETILIN, CNRT, Frente Mudansa and Democrat parties urging the Australian government to respect the sovereign rights of the Maubere people.

President of the CNRT bench MP Natalino dos Santos said they were disappointed with the Australian government's attitude and its refusal to negotiate on the establishment of a permanent maritime boundary between Timor-Leste and Australia.

"We are happy you are here to listen to our complaints about the injustice that happened to Timorese people, particularly the wealth that we have and it is not fair when they (the Australian government) ignore it," Santos said in an address to the National Parliament. He also called on the Governor-General to relay the comments directly to the Australian government.

President of the FRETILIN bench MP Aniceto Guterres Lopes described the agreement between Timor-Leste and the Australian government as temporary as Timor always believed that its sovereign rights would one day be treated according to international law.

"Sooner or later, our sovereign rights in the Timor Sea will be recognized under international law as it was not a permanent agreement," said Lopes. He added that Timor-Leste was always ready to cooperate with neighboring countries to explore oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea for the benefit of all parties.

Meanwhile, Ministry of State for the Presidential Council of Ministers, Agio Pereira, said the issue was a major government priority and it would continue to press for the re-opening of negotiations on a permanent maritime boundary.

In response to the comments, Cosgrove said while Australia and Timor-Leste were neighboring countries and friends who shared a long history, there were a few issues that needed to be discussed.

He also said Australia was committed to resolving the differences between the leaders of both countries and strengthening its relationship with Timor-Leste. "We will continue to look for a fair and pragmatic solution to resolve the differences, so our connection with your country will become even stronger and deeper," said Cosgrove.

The ongoing stalemate has continued to cause tensions between the Timor-Leste and Australian governments, with thousands attending two days of protests outside the Australian embassy in Dili in April.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/capital/13616-mps-urge-for-the-permanent-maritime-boundary-between-timor-leste-and-australia

Timor-Leste fights Australia's theft

Red Flag - April 2, 2016

Rutaban Yameen – Up to 30,000 people rallied on 22 and 23 March at the Australian embassy in Dili to protest Australia's theft of billions of dollars in royalties and tax revenue from oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

The protests coincided with the anniversary of the Australian government's 2002 decision to withdraw from the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which allowed it to strong-arm newly independent East Timor out of its rightful majority share of the reserves.

Under the direction of then foreign minister Alexander Downer, the 2002 decision left East Timor with no legal avenues to negotiate its claim. Timor-Leste is now demanding that a permanent boundary be set at the median line between the two countries in accordance with the UNCLOS.

Former Timorese president Xanana Gusmso called on protesters to "stand firm and raise one voice" to demand that Australia re-enter negotiations to redraw the maritime boundary.

Protesters shouted slogans including "Negotiations now" and "Hands off Timor oil". Organisers of the Dili protests included student leaders and veterans of East Timor's independence movement.

"This is possibly the biggest demonstration we've seen since we declared independence", Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea coordinator Juvinal Dias told AFP. Dias accused Australia of "illegally occupying Timor-Leste's maritime territory".

Last week's protests constitute "a struggle increasingly seen by Timorese people as necessary to complete our independence from foreign domination", Timor Sea Justice Campaign organiser Tomas Freitas told SBS.

Last month prime minister Malcolm Turnbull offered to hold "frank and open" discussions with Timor-Leste but declined to discuss specifically the maritime boundary issue.

After the 2002 Timor Sea Treaty handed Australia 82 percent of revenues from Greater Sunrise, another treaty, the Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS), was negotiated in 2006. The CMATS gave a partial concession to East Timor by allowing it 50 percent of the revenues.

However, it completely excluded East Timor's government and oil company from participation in the development and required Timor to postpone for 50 years all negotiations for a permanent settlement of the boundary.

It was later revealed by the ABC's Lateline program in November last year that Canberra spied on Timor-Leste officials during the 2004 negotiations leading up to the ratification of the CMATS Treaty. Listening devices were planted in East Timor's cabinet office under the guise of refurbishment.

The Timor-Leste government now demands that the CMATS be torn up and Australia re-enter negotiations for a new maritime border.

In Melbourne hundreds of protesters gathered on 24 March outside the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as part of a series of protests in the region held in solidarity with the Dili demonstrations.

Source: https://redflag.org.au/node/5205

Freedom of speech & expression

Timor-Leste: PM Rui de Araujo lashes out at Western press critics

Pacific Media Centre - April 30, 2016

Sydney (The Australian/Pacific Media Watch) – Timor-Leste Prime Minister Rui de Araujo has lashed out at Western critics, saying their nations had "acquiesced" to the 24 years of Indonesian occupation.

Dr de Araujo responded to a letter from four press freedom groups condemning his defamation action against two journalists, and the related criminal sanctions in Timor's penal code.

The letter says the case against two Timor Post journalists is seeking to apply Article 285 of the Penal Code, the "slanderous denunciation" clause, which carries a penalty of three years' jail. The media freedom groups say the case is already "engendering a culture of fear and intimidation among journalists who report on issues of national import".

Raimundos Oki and former editor Lourenco Martins have been called before the prosecutor's office for interview after Dr de Araujo filed the suit, and have had limitations placed on their freedom of movement.

"We strongly urge you to call on the prosecutor-general to drop these damaging charges and to consider legal reforms that abolish Article 285," says the Committee to Protect Journalists, Freedom House, the International Federation of Journalists and the Southeast Asia Journalists Union.

Dr de Aruajo hit back fiercely in a four-page response obtained by The Weekend Australian.

He said he was a Timorese citizen who had "endured harassment during 24 years of Indonesia occupation, acquiesced by all major Western powers", including "by some of the worldwide press advocates".

He would not trade "press freedom and freedom of expression with "press irresponsibility" and "irresponsible expression of freedom"."

The case centres on an article last November that reported on the awarding of a US$13.4 million contract to install IT in the new finance ministry.

Ministry adviser

Dr de Araujo was working as an adviser in the ministry when the contract was awarded. His main contention appears to be that the newspaper published the wrong name for the company that won the contract. Surprisingly, he claimed "there is no such thing as 'criminal defamation' in East Timor".

However, a UN translation of the code states that any person who "informs or casts suspicion on a certain person regarding commission of a crime, with the intent of having criminal proceedings initiated against said person, is punishable with up to three years' imprisonment".

Australian lawyer Jim Nolan, who is acting for the journalists, says the investigation is aimed at "finding material to 'fit' the contorted features of the 'crime' created by article 285".

Nolan was speaking this week at a conference on press freedom in Dili. It was "repugnant" that the prosecutor had placed legal restrictions on the freedom of movement of the two journalists.

Source: http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/pacific-media-watch/timor-leste-pm-rui-de-araujo-lashes-out-western-press-critics-9641

Health & education

Over 50 percent of Timorese children suffer from malnutrition

Dili Weekly - April 28, 2016

More than 50% of Timorese children aged five and under suffer from malnutrition, according to 2013 data released by the Ministry of Health.

Executive Director of Together We Help Each Other (HIAM) Health organization, Rosaria Martins da Cruz, said the high rates of malnutrition was due to a lack of knowledge about food and nutrition.

Other factors also include culture, tradition, access to clean water and family income. "It means that half of Timorese children suffer from malnutrition and it is a big problem that should take priority," said da Cruz at the USAID office in Farol, Dili.

Education was key to combating malnutrition in Timor-Leste, she said, as this would help communities to better understand how to balance their diet and protect their health.

Nutritionist Heather Grieve also said it was important to invest in nutrition programs as this had the biggest impact on children's physical and intellectual growth. She said stunted or underweight children were more likely to experience learning difficulties later in life and were also more susceptible to infections and disease.

Research on food and nutrition in Timor-Leste showed that malnutrition rates for children stood at 50.2% in 2013, an almost 8% decrease compared to a 2010 Demographic and Health Survey, which put the rates at 58%.

However, National Director of Public Health Pedro Canisio described the decrease as insignificant and that reducing malnutrition rates remained a major priority for the ministry.

He said poor nutrition was linked to multiple factors, including poor education, food insecurity and lack of access to clean water and therefore required a multi-ministry response.

"Nowadays we have a Vitamin A and combantrim distribution program for children aged five years and under to help them avoid micronutrient deficiencies," he said. The ministry also distributes food supplements such as corn flour to pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers to help combat malnutrition.

Meanwhile, the US embassy's deputy chief of mission, Katherine Dueholm, said her government remained committed to helping Timor-Leste reduce malnutrition rates through improvements in the agricultural sector.

The US government has allocated $90.2 million through the advanced agriculture program to provide training to local farmers on modern agricultural practices.

"We support the agriculture sector through the advanced agriculture program, which provides technical support to farmers in increasing the country's production," she said.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/children-youth/13680-over-50-of-timorese-children-suffer-from-malnutrition

Taskforce set up to combat antibiotic resistance in Timor-Leste

Dili Weekly - April 28, 2016

Paulina Quintao – The Ministry of Health in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO) has established a national taskforce to help combat the rise in antimicrobial resistance.

The aim of the taskforce is to raise awareness among communities and health personnel on the proper use of antibiotics.

The National Director of Pharmacy and Medical Equipment, Jonia da Cruz, said antimicrobial resistance had become an increasing threat in Timor-Leste due to the poor quality of drugs available and misuse of antibiotics, which are easily obtained without a doctor's prescription.

"We have established the focal points at the national and the municipality level and the taskforce commission will develop an action plan, particularly to increase the knowledge of health personnel and communities on the use of medicine," said da Cruz at Hotel Timor in Dili.

Antimicrobial resistance occurs when bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites mutate or change to protect themselves against certain drugs, rendering standard treatments for many common infections ineffective. Resistant forms of bacteria can also spread to other people.

Some of the major causes of antimicrobial resistance include the overuse of medications or not following the correct dose and times as prescribed by a doctor.

Da Cruz acknowledged that Timor-Leste had yet to introduce standard guidelines on the use of antibiotics and therefore relied on information they received during their studies abroad when attending patients. She urged Timorese people not to use medications unnecessarily or without a doctor's prescription.

Although many courses of antibiotics require the patient to continue taking the drug for up to seven days, she said in reality many people simply took the drugs until they they felt better and then stopped taking them.

Meanwhile, WHO representative to Timor-Leste Dr Rajesh Pandav said antimicrobial resistance was now a major global public health threat and meant that many infections that were once easily curable with antibiotics were becoming increasingly difficult to treat. "The government and communities need to take action," he said.

As well as launching an awareness campaign, he said WHO had also provided training to health personnel, including doctors, nurses and laboratory staff, on the correct use of antibiotics.

A global action plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance was endorsed last year at the 68th World Health Assembly.

The plan incorporates five key goals, including improving awareness about the issue among health personnel about the resistance of antibiotics, strengthening monitoring and research, reducing the incidence of infection, optimizing the use of antimicrobial agents and increasing investment in new medicines, diagnostic tools and vaccines.

In 2012, WHO reported a gradual increase in resistance to HIV drugs and in 2013 there were about 480,000 new cases of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis.

WHO said extensively-drug-resistant tuberculosis, in which first- and second-line treatment options are no longer effective, has also been identified in 100 countries, including Timor-Leste.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/health/13676-taskforce-set-up-to-combat-antibiotic-resistance-in-timor-leste

72 percent of rural area communities have access to clean water

Dili Weekly - April 18, 2016

Venidora Oliveira – Seventy-two percent of rural areas communities across 13 municipalities in Timor-Leste now have access to clean water, according to the Secretariat of State for Water and Sanitation (SAS).

The national director for water supply systems, Gustavo da Cruz, said water was being provided by the government and development partners.

However, he said some water pumps were out of order and the SAS had no budget for maintenance repairs. "There is no funding for maintenance and the community itself did not use it properly," said da Cruz.

However, this year the government proposed allocating $2 million for maintenance costs, including the installation of more water pumps for communities. "We hope that this year we can do maintenance for water pumps in rural areas," he said.

Member of Parliament MP Anna Ribeiro acknowledged that while the government had taken some steps to addressing the issue, many communities still did not have access to clean water. "Most communities do not have accessed to clean water, particularly those in rural areas," she said.

Resident Mario Fernandes also confirmed that only some rural communities had access to clean water. "The government should make an effort, so that all people can have access to clean water," he said.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/news/13654-72-of-rural-area-communities-have-access-to-clean-water

Sexual & domestic violence

JSMP: 34 percent of sexual violence cases heard at courts against girls

Dili Weekly - April 13, 2016

Venidora Oliveira – Research conducted by the Judicial System Monitoring Program (JSMP) research in 2015 has found that 34% of Timor-Leste girls are victims of sexual violence.

JSMP researcher Rita Alves said the figure was based on trials heard at municipality courts. "The result of the research in 2015 showed that 34% of girls between 14 and 15 years old experience sexual violence," said Alves in Dili.

In 2012, there were 41 recorded victims of sexual violation, 57 in 2013, 57 in 2014 and 71 in 2015. Of those, 102 experienced violence from a close partner or someone known to them.

According to the penal code Article 172, sexual violence is a crime with such cases the most common to come before the courts.

JSMP noted that many women were still reluctant to report cases of sexual violence, usually because their family had promised to resolve the issue through informal channels and they lacked information about the system of formal justice.

Meanwhile, the Deputy President of Timor-Leste Women's Parliamentarian Group (GMPTL), Member of Parliament MP Albina Marcal, acknowledged that the issue was one of national interest and the government needed to pay close attention. "The sentences provided should be in balance so that others will be afraid to do so," she said.

She also urged the communities to maintain good moral practices and not commit such criminal acts. "The family should have the principle to not get involved in such actions," said the MP.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/gender/13650-jsmp-34-of-sexual-violence-cases-heard-at-courts-against-girls

PRADET to build more women's shelters in Baucau

Dili Weekly - April 4, 2016

Venidora Oliveira – PRADET said it plans to build more women's shelters in Baucau municipality in 2016 to assist victims of domestic violence.

Executive Director of the Psychosocial Recovery and Development in East Timor (PRADET) organization, Manuel dos Santos, said Baucau Referral Hospital (BRH) would provide some land to establish the shelters, which will accommodate women from Baucau, Lospalos and Viqueque.

"It is to treat the victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse against the children as they really do need a proper and peaceful place," said Santos in Dili.

PRADET established shelters in Dili and Oecusse in 2002 followed by Suai and Maliana in 2013. The proposed budget for the project is $90, 900 and will be provided by the Japanese government, he said.

Health ministry representative Isabelita Leto Mau said the establishment of shelters was important to assist and treat the victims of domestic violence.

BRH had so far provided one maternity room to PRADET to conduct initial consultations with victims. However, she said this was not ideal as victims had questioned its suitability.

Since 2010, PRADET has also provided medical forensic training to seven health personnel.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/news/13608-pradet-to-build-more-women-s-shelters-in-baucau

Agriculture & food security

Australian agricultural researchers help lift Timorese farmers out of dire poverty

ABC Rural - April 29, 2016

Sarina Locke – Australia's longest-running agricultural aid project is coming to an end, having lifted East Timor's farmers from the ashes of the militia's destruction 16 years ago.

After the UN peacekeepers, Australian agricultural researchers were some of the first on site to assess the damage and see what they needed to develop. The work with Timor's farmers and agriculture researchers has reduced the so-called hungry season, almost doubled production, but still has a way to go with reducing malnutrition.

At a ceremony in Dili, the agriculture minister, Estanislau da Silva launched seven new seed varieties of food crops, including two sweet potatoes, mung beans, red beans, and cassava.

The new yellow sweet potato is rich in Vitamin A, essential to addressing Timorese eyesight problems. The other is a bright purple variety of sweet potato, found locally in the markets of Baucau in eastern Timor and found to suit all farming areas.

It brings to 19 the number of new varieties released, after 600 were trialled on 4,000 farm demonstration sites.

The crops have been produced with the help of international agricultural research stations (CGIARS) including; CIMMYT for maize and wheat in Mexico, to Tropical Agriculture CIAT in Colombia, and rice research IRRI in the Philippines.

With more than 16 years of work and $38 million of Australian involvement, the project is drawing to a close in June, handing over to the Timorese Ministry of Agriculture (MAF).

Food security crisis

The Seeds of Life Project began in the smouldering remains of the post-referendum violence, when Pro-Indonesian militia retaliated after Timor's vote for freedom.

"The place had been wrecked and families and whole groups and communities were totally disrupted, up in the hills, they'd fled," Seeds of Life team leader John Dalton explained. He said eminent Australian agronomist Colin Piggin was among the first to work on food security.

"They could see that there was a huge hunger problem and the varieties farmers were using were very old varieties and the world crop centres had much better varieties, much more productive," Mr Dalton said.

"So they went to the CGIARS and asked for the best varieties of the food crops; maize, rice, peanuts, sweet potato, and cassava. So they could provide us with the best varieties for Timor."

With the new crop varieties developed at the international research stations, they needed a way to multiply the seeds. Seeds of Life collaborated with other international aid groups.

"Some groups and charities just gave seed away to farmers and never knew what happened next," said agronomist Rob Williams who led the project during phase two up to 2011.

"But one group did particularly well, establishing seed production groups. They'd give seed, show them a way to store it, dry it, thresh it. At the end of the season they had more seed than they started with."

That work was pioneered by Buddhi Kunwar, a leading agronomist from Nepal, who has joined the project and become crucial to the success of Seeds of Life.

"The plan over the five years was to make 1,000 groups, but he did it over three years, so he did it really rapidly, across corn, rice, maize, beans and cassava," Mr Williams said.

"Some were so good they created commercial seed production, and they could sell it back to the government and be the new national seed growers of the country. So the Ministry doesn't have to buy seed in any more.

"They buy from these commercial seed producers and last year there was $400,000 that went around these 70 groups," Mr Dalton said. They're now becoming commercial farmers. That needs to happen, for farmers to get beyond subsistence."

Storing bumper harvests

Mr Dalton said the new improved seed varieties were all conventionally bred, not hybrid and not genetically modified, with no fertiliser applied, and yet the results have been dramatic.

Maize yields have been 40 per cent higher than traditional varieties, rice 20 per cent higher, sweet potato 30 to 130 per cent higher with a much shorter growing season. But there were more reports of weevils and rats eating the maize.

The project identified a solution; disused fuel drums at the Dili airport, and after a short trial, collaborated with the International Fund for Agricultural Development, to source and supply 48 gallon or 200 litre drums.

The project, worth over $5 million has delivered food security into the traditional "hungry season".

The household paid a co-contribution of $10 per drum, while IFAD paid $40 per drum. While some drums have been misused, cut open for water or left empty, when they are full the value of the grain stored has trebled.

Agricultural economist Phil Young calculated value for each household: No storage drums and no new seeds equals $336 worth of maize for the year. With storage drums and new Seeds of Life varieties, maize is worth $1,008 for the year.

Mapping the landscape

On our bumpy, skidding drive into the hills of Aileu above Dili it is easy to see why life is such a struggle for farmers.

The land is steep and rugged, carved into by the monsoonal rain which arrives in massive bursts of 200mm in an hour It scarifies the hillside made of loose alluvial soil, which is far less fertile than the volcanic soil of Timor's neighbours along the Indonesian archipelago.

At Fadabloco village the community has mapped the watershed and countryside, to see how to use the land better, and grow better perennial crops to hold the soil in place. It is also helping them identify precious crops to keep the livestock out of, the sacred houses, and important water sources.

The uncertainty of land ownership is a hangover from the Indonesian occupation, when the military suspected villagers of protecting the Falantil Army and marched people out to the cities.

"You have to tie up your animals, can't cut wood arbitrarily, and burn down trees," said the village chief of Fadabloco, through the Peace Corps translator. "And you have to contain your animals so they don't ruin other people's crops."

Empowering women with micro loans

The Seeds of Life's success has led to new local banks across Timor, run largely by the women, providing loans at low interest. Compared to money lenders who offer loans at 10 to 20 per cent per month, these community banks ask 3 per cent per month.

The turnover in the banks across Timor over two years has been $200,000, and highest in Timor's poorest province Oecussi. Research shows the money they borrow has been used to pay for children's education, to fix homes, and cover health costs and to a lesser extent develop their agricultural enterprise.

"Women have access to a loan then they can open a new business, they sell to the local market," advisor to Seeds of Life Wayan Tambun explained. "They observe in Venilale village, they observe lots of women more empowered now."

'O Sele the seed' an ode to the project

"An end of Seeds of Life survey has shown the project's success with about 50 per cent of farmers, that's 65,000 farmers, using one or more of the new varieties," Mr Williams said. "They're producing about $6 million more food in the country a year, $100 per household."

A champion farmer Francesca Magdalena Pintu is so happy with the new seeds she penned an ode to the Sele variety of corn, for a visit by then President Ramos Horta. "It's helped us in many ways," she continued through a translator.

"One is I can send my children to school, one is in university. We've been able to cement the floor of our house, buy a motorbike and we've been able to fulfil our obligations; weddings, funerals and associated ceremonies and we can help our family members.

"Seeds of Life is finishing, I hope the knowledge which is left to us will become like a symbol to us in Timor Leste and will result in us being self-sufficient in seed."

The outgoing Australian leaders of Seeds of Life have high hopes for the next phase to involve better agronomy and extension to the farmers.

Four hundred years of colonial rule by the Portuguese and then the Indonesians took Timor's wealth of sandalwood and timber. The next Australian projects hope to restore forestry and sandalwood to the mountainsides.

[Sarina Locke travelled as a winner of the Crawford Fund's food security journalism award.]

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-29/seeds-of-life-timor-lifts-farmers-out-of-hungry-season/7359522

Governance & administration

Oil Fund transfers lead to budget surplus in Timor-Leste in 2015

Macauhub - April 7, 2016

Transfers from the Oil Fund allowed the 2015 budget in Timor-Leste (East Timor) to post a surplus of US$471.8 million, according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance issued Wednesday in Dili.

The fiscal newsletter of the Ministry of Finance for the third quarter of 2015, reports said that excluding the Oil Fund, the main source of government revenue, Timor-Leste would have ended 2015 with a deficit of US$835.9 million.

The oil revenues of the Timorese state were US$1.306 billion last year, in addition toUS$139.1 million from the Donor Fund and US$122.2 million in non-oil revenues.

Overall, the state withdrew from the Oil Fund US$1.2785 billion, of which US$638.5 million correspond to the amount of Estimated Sustainable Income (RSE) and the remaining US$640 million were withdrawals above this sustainable value.

Taxes accounted for the largest share of non-oil revenues (72.1 percent). Income tax increased 0.73 percent to US$53.3 million, tax on goods and services fell 5.4 percent to US$60.2 million and tax on international trade fell 9.5 percent to US$12.1 million. (macauhub/TL)

Source: http://www.macauhub.com.mo/en/2016/04/07/oil-fund-transfers-lead-to-budget-surplus-in-timor-leste-in-2015/

Communication & transport

89 people died in traffic accidents in 2015

Dili Weekly - April 18, 2016

Venidora Oliveira – National Police (PNTL) Commander Julio Hornai said the data was taken in 13 municipalities and showed that 417 people were seriously injured, while 1399 suffered minor injuries. "It is currently becoming a security concern in our country," said Hornai in Dili.

He said most accidents were as a result of human error and drivers ignoring traffic rules, with drink driving also a problem. He said police plan to increase check point operations in the city and municipalities in an effort to reduce road incidents and fatalities.

Meanwhile, Member of Commission B (responsible for security, defense and foreign affairs) Member of Parliament MP Cesar Valente said the high road tool was concerning and said there was a need to raise more awareness of traffic regulations among drivers.

"Those who live in the municipalities, post administrative [areas] and suburbs don't know yet about the traffic regulations," he said. "It is necessary to increase awareness programs and penalties for those who break the law."

Resident Elvido Freitas said road accidents are increasing every year because drivers ignore the regulations. "It is about people's awareness but everyone does whatever they want [on the road]," he said.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/news/13660-89-people-died-in-traffic-accidents-in-2015

Foreign affairs & trade

Indonesia, Timor Leste sign agreement to prevent HIV/AIDS

Tempo - April 30, 2016

Yohanes Seo, Kupang – Indonesia and Timor Leste signed a memorandum of understanding covering cooperation on preventing HIV infection in both countries. The MoU signing was conducted at the National AIDS Mitigation Commission (KPAN) in Jakarta on Thursday, April 28, 2016.

Husein Pancratius, secretary of the East Nusa Tenggara branch of the KPAN, told Tempo that the MoU signing was conducted by KPAN secretary Kemal Siregar and Timor Leste AIDS Mitigation Commission secretary Danial Marcal.

"The cooperation is aimed to improve public role in preventing and mitigating HIV/AIDS," Kemal said on the sidelines of the MoU signing. According to Kemal, both countries have agreed to build strategic cooperation to address HIV/AIDS epidemic, particularly in border areas. He explained the cooperation covered information exchange, technical assistant exchange, consultant exchange, staff development, seminar and conference, and other activities. Danial Marcal said that HIV/AIDS had been threats for citizens of both countries. "The cooperation is aimed to save lives," Danial added.

KPAN secretary Husein Pancratius said that the agreement was a follow up of effort initiated by the East Nusa Tenggara branch of KPAN over the last two years. "We're also focusing on improving public participation in villages located in border areas," he said.

Data from the East Nusa Tenggara Health Agency revealed that as many as 3,700 HIV/AIDS cases had been found by late December 2015. The death toll stood at 1,062 people. Meanwhile in Timor Leste, as many as 604 people were found infected by HIV, and 65 of them died due to the virus.

Source: http://en.tempo.co/read/news/2016/04/28/307766766/Indonesia-Timor-Leste-Sign-Agreement-to-Prevent-hivaids

Viet Nam, Timor Leste seek increased cooperation

Viet Nam News - April 8, 2016

Ha Noi - Viet Nam and Timor Leste will intensify their cooperation across politics, economy, investment, trade, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy, and communications.

This was reached during the talks in Hanoi yesterday between Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Timor Leste's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Hermani Coelho da Silva, who is on an official visit to Viet Nam from April 6-8.

Minh affirmed that Viet Nam's policy is to boost the friendship with Timor Leste bilaterally and multilaterally and expressed his hope that the visit will help spur the friendship and multi-dimensional affiliation between the two countries.

He vowed that Viet Nam is ready to support Timor Leste in agriculture, rural development, poverty reduction, and aquaculture while asking for the country's facilitation of operations of Vietnamese investors there.

The guest minister wished to learn from Viet Nam's development experience and develop mutually-beneficiary cooperation with Viet Nam. He said he was delighted with the two countries' rice trade and suggested the early organisation of the first meeting of the foreign minister-level joint committee.

He pledged to steer relevant ministries and sectors to work on the signing of agreements on investment protection and promotion, agriculture cooperation, trans-national crime prevention and combat and judicial assistance in crime issues and extradition.

The officials exchanged views on regional and international cooperation issues of shared concern, pledging to enhance coordination at multilateral forums and organisations. Viet Nam values Timor Leste's determination and efforts to soon join ASEAN and will work with other bloc members to support the country in realising its desire.

On the East Sea issue, the two sides agreed on the need to ensure maritime and aviation security and safety, address disputes in the sea by peaceful means on the basis of international law, including the UN Convention on the law of the sea 1982, and maintain peace and stability in the area. VNS

Source: http://vietnamnews.vn/politics-laws/295025/viet-nam-timor-leste-seek-increased-cooperation.html

Mining & energy

Oil production in Kitan-Bayu Undan in decline

Dili Weekly - April 29, 2016

Venidora Oliveira – With oil production in Kitan and Bayu-Undan is in steep decline, there are calls for the Timorese government to boost state revenue by developing other sectors.

The Luta Hamutuk organization said the government could no longer rely on oil revenues to grow the country's economy. Executive Director Mericio Akara said Kitan oil field is currently producing a maximum of just 5000 barrels per day. In the past, it produced an average of 10,100 and up to 95,000 barrels.

"It cannot be productive globally anymore. It costs $31 or $32 for each barrel and the reserve is getting lower so the company decided not to produce it anymore," said Akara at his office in Farol, Dili.

Timor-Leste remains heavily dependent on oil funds, which is the main source of government revenue. However, if oil prices remain the same next year, it's predicted that oil revenues will reach only $450 to $500 million.

"Are we able to live with $500 million from oil funds?" said Akara. He said the government needed to diversify and look at how to develop other industries such as tourism, agriculture, fisheries and cement. He said revenue could then be clawed back through taxes paid by industry to access infrastructure such as electricity.

The Timorese government has established a petroleum wealth fund to preserve some of its oil funds for the future, although there are fears this will be rapidly depleted once revenues stop flowing.

Member of National Parliament Arao Noe acknowledged the decline in production, but said Timor had nothing to fear as under the law the government could not take more than 3% from the fund per year. "Timor still has enough money, so we should not be shocked by this issue," he said.

He said some revenues from the oil fund had been invested in the Bank of America and after diversifying in 2009 the savings were now earning interest. While the investment continued to deliver a good return, Noe urged the government to ensure the fund was properly managed.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Alfredo Pires, acknowledged that production had been affected by low oil prices.

However, he said the slow-down may only be temporary and that production could start again once prices start to rise again. "We are still observing the international situation, particularly the change of oil prices, to see if it is permanent or just temporary," said Pires.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/capital/13684-oil-production-in-kitan-bayu-undan-in-decline

Economy & investment

Indonesia's state bank plans to expand business to Timor Leste

Xinhua - April 13, 2016

Jakarta – Indonesia's second largest bank by asset, PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), will open a new branch in Timor Leste in an effort to expand business in the young nation, top official of the lender said here on Wednesday.

Asmawi Syam, president director of the state-owned lender said that the bank would establish an office at the center of business in the neighboring country, which has a huge potential for banking business.

"Its feasibility study is being made. It is certainly very profitable, he said at the headquarters of the state-owned oil and gas firm, PT Pertamina.

According to Muliaman Hadad, head of the Indonesian financial services authority, the bank may start opening the branch at the second quarter or the second half of this year.

PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia has a good reputation in distributing loans to small and medium business at remote areas in Indonesia.

The Indonesian financial services authority and Timor Leste central bank, Banco Central de Timor Leste have inked a deal on the opportunity for Indonesian banking industry to carry out business expansion in Timor Leste, according to Muiliaman.

Timor Leste had been under Indonesian rules for 24 years before it got independence in 2002. Since then both countries agreed to build economic ties and cooperate in other sectors.

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-04/13/c_135276009.htm

Invasion & occupation

Soldier survives years in jail cell

Ipswich Advertiser - April 27, 2016

Brian Bennion – Timorese resistance fighter Mario Nicolau dos Reis spent 17 years as a political prisoner in an Indonesian jail before the Australian-led peacekeeping force came to the aid of his people.

He was in Ipswich last week with three fellow Timorese veterans visiting the country's RSL associations to help form a veterans organisation in East Timor and to join the Anzac Centennial commemorations.

Mr Reis, who became the country's Secretary of State for Veterans Affairs, had been fighting for five years in the jungle after joining up with the guerrilla fighters when war broke out in 1975 before he was captured.

Locked away in the Indonesian prison at Cipinang for so long, it is a miracle he lives to tell the story.

One of the veterans travelling with him, Antonio Thomas Do Amaral da Costa, was held in Kupang prison, West Timor, for seven years after years of fighting in the jungle.

He abandoned his career as a young teacher to join the guerrilla forces at the outbreak of war in 1975. There were 69 freedom fighters imprisoned with him at Kupang.

"One died in prison from starvation and 54 disappeared without a trace. They were taken by the military and never came back," Mr da Costa said. "Only 14 of us were rescued by the Red Cross and taken back to Timor."

Mr Reis said the brutality of the Indonesian occupation gave rise to a spirited resistance movement. "The military intervention of Indonesian forces brought a lot of hardship for the people," Mr Reis said.

"Houses were burned, crops destroyed, people killed – the brutality is why the people stood up and resisted against it and that later became the factor where the campaign abroad was gaining momentum in terms of sympathy.

"We were nothing in terms of firepower, men and guns, but we had spirit, the spirit of struggling for the right to be a separate nation, independence, justice and peace. That was the driving force that lead us to win the war.

"The guerrilla movement came out of the population itself. It was the people that organised themselves. They themselves, their sons and daughters took up arms to defend their sovereign right and independence."

But the years of fighting and imprisonment took a harsh toll on the Timorese. Despite Timor's close ties with Australia after our Diggers liberated the country from Japanese occupation in the Second World War, Australia and the world had turned their backs on the conflict.

"After 24 years, the world woke up to say the people were suffering and struggling just to vindicate the right for freedom and peace and justice," Mr Reis said.

"The decision-makers in the government in Australia and the United States at the time, they clearly supported Indonesia, that's why (Indonesia) invaded our country.

"With the intervention of the international community Australia had no choice. And apart from what had happened in the past, the intervention of the Australians in Timor was very much welcome.

"We were pleased with the involvement of Australia to bring about peace and independence for our country."

Source: http://www.ipswichadvertiser.com.au/news/soldier-survives-years-in-jail-cell/3007245/

Timor-Leste PM praises late bishop's independence efforts

UCA News - April 12, 2016

Thomas Ora, Dili, Timor Leste – Timor-Leste Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araujo has praised late Bishop Alberto Ricardo da Silva of Dili, as well as other Catholic clergy, nuns and religious for their "invaluable and unselfish contribution" in helping the country win independence from Indonesia.

"The Catholic Church has made a huge contribution to our country, and the government will always remember that," de Araujo said.

He was speaking after a Mass in Timor-Leste's capital Dili on April 9 to mark the first anniversary of Bishop da Silva's death. The late bishop died on April 2, 2015, aged 72. More than 500 people attended the Mass celebrated by newly installed Bishop Virgilio do Carmo da Silva of Dili at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral.

Bishop da Silva - along with priests, nuns, and brothers who were shot dead by the Indonesian army before and after the 1999 Timor-Leste referendum that led to independence in 2002 - showed a dedication to the mission of the church and the liberty of Timor-Leste, de Araujo said.

"I told Pope Francis at the Vatican that the Catholic Church in Timor-Leste fought with the people during our fight for freedom," de Araujo said referring to a visit he made to the Vatican last month.

One of the events Bishop da Silva will be remembered for is saving the lives of many youths when he protected them by offering shelter after they were attacked by Indonesian soldiers on Nov. 12, 1991 in Dili's Santa Cruz cemetery. At least 250 people were killed in the ensuing massacre.

"He was parish priest at the time. Despite facing many threats from the Indonesian military, he did not abandon us," Rogerio Castro da Cruz, one of the youths who survived the massacre told ucanews.com. "He told us to believe in Jesus, to be closer to the church and asked us to stay and pray," he said.

Source: http://www.ucanews.com/news/timor-leste-pm-praises-late-bishops-independence-efforts/75732

Gripping account of women's hammer blow against East Timor bloodletting

Morning Star - April 11, 2016

Review by Ian Sinclair – "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." The Hammer Blow is the perfect illustration of anthropologist Margaret Mead's famous quote.

This barnstorming read tells the extraordinary story of how, in January 1996, author Andrea Needham along with nine other female activists worked to disarm a British Aerospace Hawk jet which was about to be sent to Indonesia.

Led by the murderous dictator Suharto, in 1975 Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony of East Timor and proceeded to carry out what US dissident Noam Chomsky described as "one of the greatest bloodlettings in modern history compared to total population."

Approximately 200,000 people - about a third of the total population - are reported to have died by the mid-1990s, with the Indonesian forces using the British-made Hawk jets to subdue the East Timorese.

Appalled by the British government aiding and abetting Indonesia's genocidal actions, and having unsuccessfully lobbied British Aerospace and the government, the 10 women formed an affinity group to explore how, using direct action, they could stop the slaughter.

The preparation for what is now known as the Seeds of Hope East Timor Ploughshares Action took 10 long months and Needham explains the group bonded over a number of weekends including lengthy "life-sharing" sessions and discussing questions of militarism, patriarchy, co-operation with authority, secrecy and openness and when is it right to break the law.

Needham's account of sneaking into the British Aerospace factory at Warton and disarming the Hawk by hammering and smashing parts of the aircraft is absolutely riveting. Eventually discovered by security, the three women who carried out the action - Needham, Jo Blackman and Lotta Kronlid, along with Angie Zelter - were arrested.

Reasoning that they acted to prevent a larger crime, their subsequent trial in Liverpool is a fascinating and uplifting example of passionately principled people presenting their case to the conservative British legal system.

"I'm not breaking the law, I'm upholding it," Kronlid told the prosecutor. After six months on remand in prison and a huge support campaign publicising their actions the four women were acquitted on July 30 1996 to jubilant scenes outside the court.

"In 20 years of resistance we were never able to shoot down an aircraft," East Timor's future president Jose Ramon Horta wrote in a letter to the women in prison. "You did it without even firing a single shot and without hurting the pilot."

Frustratingly, after its election in 1997, Tony Blair's government, with Robin Cook as foreign secretary, refused to stop arming Indonesia. That exposed Labour's "ethical foreign policy" for the sham it was, notes Needham.

Yet the action of these dedicated activists arguably played a role in ending the occupation of East Timor and will inspire fellow activists for years to come.

Source: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-3c32-Gripping-account-of-womens-hammer-blow-against-East-Timor-bloodletting

Analysis & opinion

Australia needs to negotiate not litigate with neighbours

Sydney Morning Herald - April 24, 2016

Jose Ramos Horta – The maritime border dispute between Timor-Leste (East Timor) and Australia dates back at least to the 1960s. Former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer called it unfinished business. He got that right.

Australia claims that Timor-Leste is trying to change the borders, but there are none to change. Australia, speaking for both countries, says that the current arrangements are working. Timor-Leste, speaking for itself, says the current arrangements are not working. Given our geography, we must secure a settlement.

Australia has stymied every attempt on our part to negotiate maritime borders, refusing until now, even with the launch of our compulsory conciliation under the auspice of the United Nations. Australia could avoid dragging this out with costs to both sides, by agreeing to negotiate now.

Australia says it prefers to negotiate not litigate and prides itself on its ability to reach bilateral agreements with its neighbours; settling maritime borders with New Zealand, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. This begs the question – why not with Timor-Leste?

Australia said let us get temporary arrangements settled first before borders. We naively, some would say, believed that borders would come. In good faith we believed that Australia would support a serious consideration of a gas pipeline to our shores, having secured one to Darwin. Does Australia simply want to exhaust contested resources (think Nauru and phosphates exploitation) until there are none? Australia fully exploited the fields of Laminaria-Corallina, (twice as close to Timor-Leste than Australia) that would be in our territory if we had maritime borders.

Despite this conflicted history, East Timor enjoys friendly relationships with its two giant neighbours, Australia and Indonesia. Both countries have played central roles in assisting us in our hard work of peace and state building and national development.

With Indonesia we have almost completely resolved our common land borders and are in the preparatory stages of our maritime border negotiations.

In 1972 Australia and Indonesia agreed on their joint maritime seabed boundary based on Australia's unilateral interpretation of the "Continental Shelf" principle. Its legal and geographical veracity was doubtful then and beyond doubt now.

The "Medium Line" principle is the international legal norm, where opposing coastlines are 400 nautical miles or less apart. This allows exploitation of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) that extends 200 nautical miles from the coastlines. The current arrangements deny us our EEZ rights.

The 1958 Convention on the Continental Shelf included the median line provision, as does the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). A convention that Singapore's eminent diplomat and president of the seminal third law of the sea conference, H.E. Tommy Koh calls "The Constitution for the Oceans".

The 1972 agreement was followed by the Timor Gap Treaty 1989 that created a zone of cooperation between Australia and Indonesia. Since our independence, Australia has tried to push down our throats the same arrangement it unfairly managed to sell to Indonesia.

Timor-Leste chief negotiator at that time, then Prime Minister Dr Mari Alkatiri resisted Australia's demand for a maritime boundary based on its now discredited "Continental Shelf" claim.

Some facts later emerged that compelled our government to seek redress. Australia's unfair acts of espionage through blatant bugging of Timor-Leste government offices during one of our negotiation periods.

Timor-Leste cannot appeal to the judicial umpires as on the eve of our restoration of independence in 2002, Australia withdrew itself from their jurisdiction for the express purpose of marking maritime borders. Allowable yes, but also regrettable.

Other than this disagreement – and this is not a small matter – our two countries continue to cooperate in almost every field with Australia still our largest development aid partner; our bi-lateral defence and police cooperation has been exemplary. Hundreds of Timorese students are studying in Australian colleges and universities on full Australian or East Timor government scholarships. The Friendship Groups continue to grow and many high school students visit our small country. The Veterans to Veterans relationship strengthens each year, with the RSL playing a leading role. Xanana Gusmao is in Australia now leading the Timor-Leste Veterans in Anzac events.

The Australian people we have known for decades are sympathetic to the underdog and have shown genuine solidarity towards the people of Timor-Leste; they instinctively reject the elitist conservative political leaders' hardline approach on the maritime border issue.

Australia should embrace Timor-Leste, negotiate and agree on a permanent maritime boundary delimitation based on the accepted median line principle; reactivate the stalled development of the Timor Sea oil and gas projects; further support Timor-Leste education and health needs; open Australia to young Timorese workers. In Britain there are an estimated 15,000 young Timorese working; close to 2,000 others have been working in Korea under a very successful program. Australia can do more, can do better.

[Jose Ramos-Horta is the former President of Timor-Leste.]

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/jose-ramos-horta-australia-needs-to-negotiate-not-litigate-with-neighbours-20160424-godols.html

East Timor is mad as hell, and it's our fault

Crikey Insider - April 15, 2016

John Martinkus – In 1995, as I squatted for days in a hole in the jungle of East Timor with 12 men hiding from Indonesian troops patrolling nearby, the whispered conversations between the Falintil Guerrillas and myself turned to oil. We had plenty of time to talk, admittedly very quietly to not alert the Indonesians of our presence – they sometimes came so close we could hear their boots in the undergrowth. The issue of the Timor Gap treaty came up. They were having a bit of a go at the foreigner in their midst, whom they were then protecting with their lives so I could get a story. A story at the time I wasn't even sure I could sell.

Australia had signed the Timor Gap treaty with the Indonesians way back in December 1989, dividing up the resources that lay between East Timor and its nearest international neighbor, Australia, and those resources were mostly a giant oil reserve. Australia got a great deal, with the line dividing what oil would belong to Indonesia and what oil would belong to Australia significantly favouring Australia. Indonesia went along with it mainly to guarantee Australia's ongoing support for its occupation of East Timor, which it had maintained internationally since the 1975 invasion. Australia was the only country in the world to recognise Indonesian sovereignty, and the Timor Gap treaty that gave us the majority of the oil was our pay-off for ignoring the atrocities carried out on our doorstep by the Indonesian military against the East Timorese. The 12 guys sitting in that hole in the jungle, armed with a few captured M16s and old Portuguese weapons left over from the colonial army and a tarpaulin and some bushes the only protection against the hundreds of Indonesian troops searching for us, knew that. They knew Australia, on both sides of politics, had screwed East Timor.

We all know the story from there. The UN got involved after Suharto was ousted in 1998. The independence ballot was held, and the Timorese voted overwhelmingly in favour. The Indonesians burnt, looted, killed and displaced at least a third of the population. Outrage in Australia, but more importantly, pressure from then-US president Bill Clinton to clean up the mess he had helped create forced the hapless John Howard to send in a peacekeeping force led by Peter Cosgrove, now Australian Governor-General. We, Australians, were greeted as liberators and cheered in the streets still littered with the corpses of the victims of the Indonesian rampage in a city still burning with fires lit in revenge by the retreating occupiers. I was there, and suddenly, after years of working in that country, I felt proud to be an Australian.

Fast forward to 2016. Last month, 10,000 East Timorese protested against the unfair maritime boundary, which gives Australia the lion's share of the oil in the Timor Sea, outside the Australian Embassy. Dili is a small town. Protesters blocked the road to the airport and all the regions to the west of the country for hours. They were peaceful. They know how to demonstrate; they have a lot of experience. They were protesting about the oil deal and Australia's refusal to revisit what we know has always been an unfair agreement.

This week, Labor foreign affairs spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek finally addressed years of Australian hypocrisy. Australia has always lectured other countries on human rights issues, on following international law, on being responsible global citizens. But, on Timor, we never practised what we preached. In a refreshing gust of common sense and decency the ALP finally changed its policy on Timor, the oil and the agreement.

As Plibersek put it in her statement: "Timor-Leste suffered decades of war and starvation before gaining independence. Australia played a key role in securing that independence –a proud moment for our nation. But the maritime boundary dispute has strained relations with our newest neighbour. Australia's unwillingness to commit to maritime border negotiations with Timor-Leste has raised valid questions about our commitment to a rules-based international system and to being a good global citizen. This must change. Labor in government will immediately commence discussions on a voluntary, binding international resolution for a permanent maritime boundary between Australia and Timor-Leste. It is in the national interest of both countries that we do so. And importantly, by committing to freely participating in it, Labor's proposal is in the interests of the international system itself. We are seeking to end more than 40 years of uncertainty over a maritime border, and committing to international norms that we expect others to follow".

Finally, a mainstream Australian politician has come out and said what has been painfully obvious for so long. Australia has bullied, lied, spied on and used our own military as leverage to secure an inequitable deal over the resources that lie between Australia and East Timor. First we did it by coalescing and turning a blind eye to the Indonesian invasion and subsequent atrocities, right up until 1999, and some would argue, after. Both Labor and Liberal governments did that for 24 years.

Then when East Timor got independence we basically wrestled them into a deal that massively favoured Australian companies and the Australian government in terms of revenues. We stole the oil. It is well documented, the spying on negotiations, the pressure applied to Timorese politicians to sign a deal they knew was unjust. The relentless pursuit of journalists and whistleblowers involved in the negotiations by federal authorities. We bullied one of the poorest countries in the world into accepting an unfair deal. They took it because, at that time, they were broke, and we knew that and used that against them. It is no wonder 10,000 of them turned up to the Australian Embassy in Dili to protest against this. They may be poor, but they are not stupid.

That is the lesson I learnt all those years ago back in the jungle. They may have had no shoes and had not eaten for a week and lived hiding in ditches from Indonesian troops (US and Australian supplied and trained at the time) trying to hunt them, but they could quote the agreements made internationally to deny them of their natural birthright with more accuracy than diplomats, journalists and academics. The right to the resources of their country is in their blood, and at last Plibersek has acknowledged that.

Source: http://www.crikey.com.au/2016/04/15/east-timor-is-mad-as-hell-and-its-our-fault/

Dili protests show Timor-Leste is speaking with one voice on maritime boundary

The Interpreter - April 11, 2016

Edio Jose Maria Guterres – Movimentu Kontra Okupasaun Tasi Timor (MKOTT or the movement against occupation in the Timor Sea) organised a two-day peaceful protest on 22 and 23 March in what turned out to be one of the biggest concentrations of demonstrators to date in the short history of Timor-Leste. Among the many banners of MKOTT at the rally was one that read 'Come A-Waltzing Matilda With Us "Mates"... Draw the Border Line Now'.

Over 10,000 protesters on the first day and almost as many demonstrators on the second day gathered in front of the Australian Embassy in Dili. The demonstrators' demands were that Australia respect the sovereign rights of Timor-Leste in the Timor Sea and that Australia talk with the Timorese Government to define a maritime boundary in accordance with international law. The Australian Government has consistently refused to make such a good neighbourly gesture.

The two-day protest coincided with the 14th anniversary of the Australian Government's withdrawal from the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, which deprived Timor-Leste of the right to resort to an international judicial umpire on maritime boundary disputes should bilateral negotiations fail. Even friendly bilateral talks over the issue, however, have not transpired due to the Australian Government's refusal to negotiate.

The Dili protestors were joined by many similar protests across Timor-Leste; thousands rallied in the districts of Aileu, Ainaro, Baucau, Cova Lima, Lautem, Manatuto, Manufahi and Oecusse. Demonstrations were also held by Timorese and international solidarity groups in Australia (Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide), Indonesia (Surabaya, Jogjakarta and Jakarta), Kuala Lumpur, Manila, the cities of Aveiro and Lisbon in Portugal, Dungannon in Northern Ireland, as well as Peterborough in England. Other protests in the UK were called off after failing to receive police permits in time. Additionally, an online campaign drew support right across the globe.

The protests highlighted the Timorese people and their friends' strong feelings about the issue. It is a response to the Australian Government's approach to not delimit a permanent maritime boundary. When Australia can do it with its other neighbours, it is bewildering as to why it can't with Timor-Leste?

While some have tried to link the protests to the Timorese Government, there should be no doubt that these protests grew out of the strong feelings held by the Timorese and were neither government led, nor government incited. The forceful, yet peaceful, protests were organised by Timorese civil society.

Speaking at the conference on Maritime Boundaries held by the Associacao Dos Combatentes Da Brigada Negra on 16 March, former Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao applauded the Timorese for standing strong for their sovereignty, which might have mistakenly been interpreted as instigating the protests against the Australian Government.

Xanana Gusmao has never been to any formal university, but he knows international politics and diplomacy. Thus, any contemplation of Xanana inciting the demonstrations does him a great injustice. Similarly, it amounts to an insult to the people's will and determination to achieve full sovereignty for Timor-Leste. Timorese know what is right and wrong.

Timor-Leste had refrained from protests and other action on this issue for some time in order to see what would transpire with the Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea agreement (CMATS) which states that the agreement is made without prejudice to either party's claims to maritime boundaries.

However, given the deadline for the approval of development plans as set out in Article 12 of CMATS had come and gone, and given the further lack of goodwill after it became known that Australia spied on Timor-Leste during the negotiations, as well as Australia's refusal to sit at the table to settle maritime boundaries, Timorese decided enough is enough.

What is now obvious is that the government and people of Timor-Leste are speaking one language; sovereignty, which remains incomplete with a neighbour who refuses to negotiate the delimitation of the maritime boundary.

The people of Timor-Leste are now more determined than ever in demanding their just rights in the Timor Sea. The demonstrations in March have also proved that the Timorese are prepared to take this new fight to all corners of the world, so long as the Australian Government holds on to its position of refusing to negotiate for a permanent maritime boundary in the Timor Sea. The Waltzing Matilda might take some time still.

[Edio Jose Maria Guterres is a political analyst based in Dili, Timor-Leste. The views expressed here are the author's own and do not represent any institution he is affiliated with.]

Source: http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2016/04/11/Dili-protests-show-Timor-Leste-is-speaking-with-one-voice-on-maritime-boundary.aspx

East Timor's second independence struggle is with Australia

Ricochet - April 4, 2016

David Webster – In the 1990s, the Liberal government maintained close ties with the Indonesian regime that occupied East Timor. The new Liberal government's environment minister, Catherine McKenna, has in the past worked as a negotiator for the UN mission in East Timor, and some hope that experience could push Canada to play a better role in what is being called a "second independence struggle."

Last week, ten thousand protesters flocked to the streets in Dili, the bustling capital city of Timor-Leste, once known in English as East Timor.

"Complete the struggle for independence," protesters demanded. Supporters staged smaller demonstrations throughout the region and via social media as part of an international week of solidarity with Timor-Leste.

The small half-island country won its freedom in 2002 after a quarter-century of blood and fire. Under an Indonesian military occupation that lasted from 1975 to 1999, between 100,000 and 200,000 Timorese died - over one-sixth of the population, and as high as one-third by some counts.

The near-genocide did not succeed in crushing resistance: the Timorese fought on from mountain fastnesses, from church basements and school hallways, using guerrilla tactics, innovative non-violent protests and diplomatic methods to tell their story to the world.

Canadian government complicity

For most of that period, Western governments urged the Timorese to surrender. Indonesia's military regime was a strategic and trade partner beloved in capitals from Washington to Ottawa to Canberra to Tokyo. The Canadian government again and again welcomed Indonesian leaders, sought more trade with Indonesia, became one of the top foreign investors in Indonesia and even sold the regime military equipment.

On the other hand, more and more Canadians listened to Timorese voices and stood in solidarity with the Timorese struggle for human rights and for self-determination. Church groups signed letters and appeals. Trade unions spoke out. University students were the backbone of protests across the country. The East Timor Alert Network, founded on Vancouver Island, became a national organization standing with the Timorese.

In 2002, the Timorese finally gained their independence. The work of the East Timor Alert Network was recognized in 2015 with the Order of Timor-Leste, the country's highest honour.

Despite some growing pains, independent Timor-Leste embarked on a positive journey. It has held three rounds of parliamentary and presidential elections, judged to be free and fair, and seen non-violent transfers of power at all levels of government. Its economy has grown and standards of living are rising.

Timor-Leste has signed more UN covenants on human rights than the United States. Internationally, its work includes support for the people of Western Sahara and Palestine, the creation of a new group of "fragile states" cheekily named the g7+ (with a lowercase g), and active work with UN Women.

Australia's intransigence

So why did the largest wave of protests since independence speak of a second campaign for independence? Timorese independence is incomplete, activists and political leaders say, so long as there is a lack of clear borders with their neighbours. One neighbouring country still refuses to negotiate a border with the Timorese government. But this time, it's not Indonesia. It's Australia.

The tale of Australia's refusal to negotiate a maritime border includes the bugging of Timorese cabinet ministers, pressure tactics on Timorese leaders, and a remarkable Australian decision to walk out of the jurisdiction of international tribunals. All this to avoid sitting down to work out a boundary.

Protesters outside the Australian embassy to Timor-Leste called on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to end his country's refusal to negotiate a sea border.

On a recent visit to the United States, Turnbull called for cooperation and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea - a flashpoint between the U.S. and Chinese governments, which claims much of the sea as its territorial waters.

Speaking in Washington about China's efforts to construct artificial islands, Turnbull declared that "unilateral actions are in nobody's interest. They are a threat to the peace and good order of the region on which the economic growth and national security of all our neighbours depend." Turnbull's words apply equally to his own government, which is carrying out unilateral actions in the dispute over the borders in the Timor Sea.

When Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop visited Canada last year, she spoke of "common values" of democracy and fair play shared by her country and Canada. Yet Australia, famed for its advocacy of "a fair go" for the underdog, is not practising fair play towards its smaller neighbour.

It comes down to oil

As with so many global conflicts, the reason seems to lie in oil. The Timor Sea has plenty of it. A "median line" halfway between the two countries is the usual solution to sea border disagreements. It is how Canada defines sea borders with Greenland, for instance.

That would leave more oil on the Timorese side - a reasonable sacrifice for wealthy Australia to make in order to benefit one of Asia's poorest countries, many would say. Instead, the Australian government has forced Timor-Leste to accept shared jurisdiction, with oil refined in Australia.

The Timor Sea Treaty and the Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea create a "shared jurisdiction" zone with complex revenue-sharing agreements between the two countries. The upshot of these treaties is that Australian oil companies make more money than they would through a simple median line agreement.

The $4 billion in oil revenues to Australia dwarf that country's aid to Timor-Leste. In the words of Australian researcher Clinton Fernandes, "East Timor is Australia's biggest foreign aid donor - this is not a typo."

The current arrangement, highly advantageous to Australia, was reached when Timor-Leste was still under a UN trusteeship. The Timorese were advised by foreign experts, among them, Canada's Catherine McKenna, now the minister of the environment in Justin Trudeau's government.

Timorese leaders and protesters are now calling for new talks. They want a solution that mirrors Canada's solution to maritime border disputes with Greenland - the median line. Australia accepted that principle when working out its maritime border with New Zealand, but it's refused to do so with Timor-Leste. Perhaps that's because Australia is used to getting its way by bullying smaller neighbours that it considers to be "Third World" countries.

The recent wave of protests in Timor-Leste was organized by a new group, the Campaign Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea (known by its Tetun-language acronym, MKOTT). The sea between Timor-Leste and Australia, the group argues, should be divided along a line halfway between.

Canadian supporters of the Timorese independence campaign were inspired in the 1990s by the words of Bella Galhos, a young Timorese refugee living in Ottawa. Now an NGO activist and advisor to the president in Timor-Leste, Bella recently called for a revival of Canadian activist solidarity with the Timorese people. "For the longest time we fought for the independence of East Timor," she wrote on Facebook. "We are not completely Independent if our sea (which contains our oil) is still in the hands of Australia. A luta continua, the struggle continues. I am again calling on my Canadian friends to stand up with us in this fight."

Her words, and the street protests coordinated by MKOTT, are echoed by the Timorese government. In 2015, the Timorese prime minister, Dr. Rui Maria de Araujo, met with a group of foreign visitors and asked us to once again stand with the Timorese in a struggle for full independence.

Australia's government is stonewalling the Timorese, refusing calls for a clear border and even rejecting calls to sit down and negotiate on the issue. This is an injustice that Canadians can help to address. The Turnbull government in Australia feels free to ignore Timorese voices. It is more likely to listen to voices from "like-minded" countries, including Canada.

The Canadian government, and Canadian citizens, can make a difference by calling on Australia to end its stonewalling, sit down and negotiate a sea border.

Source: https://ricochet.media/en/1062/east-timors-second-independence-struggle-is-with-australia